{"id":878735,"date":"2026-08-31T22:44:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T22:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/878735\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T22:44:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T22:44:11","slug":"stm-tells-employees-they-can-no-longer-pray-at-work-as-quebec-secularism-law-takes-effect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/878735\/","title":{"rendered":"STM tells employees they can no longer pray at work as Quebec secularism law takes effect"},"content":{"rendered":"

Montreal<\/a><\/p>\n

Montreal’s public transit agency is telling employees they can no longer pray on workplace property, as parts of Quebec’s new secularism law come into effect on Sept. 1.<\/p>\n

Law adopted in April prohibits prayer rooms in public institutions<\/p>\n

The Canadian Press \u00b7 Posted: Aug 31, 2026 2:15 PM EDT | Last Updated: 4 hours ago<\/p>\n

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\"MuslimA student performs his afternoon prayer in the Muslim Students’ Association prayer room at Concordia University in November 2025. (Christopher Katsarov\/The Canadian Press)<\/p>\n

Montreal’s public\u00a0transit\u00a0agency\u00a0is telling employees they can no longer pray on workplace property,\u00a0as\u00a0parts of Quebec’s\u00a0new\u00a0secularism\u00a0law\u00a0come\u00a0into\u00a0effect\u00a0on Sept. 1.<\/p>\n

The Quebec government adopted a\u00a0law\u00a0in April that prohibits prayer rooms in public institutions which include colleges, universities and\u00a0transit\u00a0agencies.<\/p>\n

It also banned public prayer without explicit municipal consent.<\/p>\n

The Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 de transport de\u00a0Montr\u00e9al\u00a0(STM) says it has four rooms that employees can use for silent activities such\u00a0as\u00a0meditation and yoga, and that could previously be used for prayer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The\u00a0agency\u00a0says signs have been posted outside the rooms to remind people of the ban, and said supervisors who witness religious practices should address the matter with the employee.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the National Council of Canadian Muslims says the\u00a0new\u00a0law\u00a0undercuts Quebecers’ religious freedoms while sowing division in the province.<\/p>\n

Corrections and clarifications<\/a>\u00b7Submit a news tip<\/a>\u00b7Report error<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Montreal Montreal’s public transit agency is telling employees they can no longer pray on workplace property, as parts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":878736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":["post-878735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=878735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/878736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=878735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=878735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=878735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}